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Guest Blog

Anwis - long time listener, first time caller - shared his thoughts on the Skins:

1) Gibbs has become too detached. We all know his reputation as a master of the halftime adjustments. But that's not there anymore. But, when you're 66 it's a bit hard to come up with answers on the spot. That's fine. What's worrisome is that he's become too much of a CEO. He's allowed the mentality of the team to take on that of Saunders and Williams and other coaches. I know he cares deeply, but he seems unwilling to take charge and do something about it. We saw some of that in that speech to the team after Week 11, but that should happen after every loss. It seems that Redskins Park used to resemble a funeral house the day after a loss, but that seems to be missing.

2) Gibbs is allowed to play too much in free agency; he feels like a kid in a candy shop. The owner can't say anything because Gibbs his childhood idol and besides, Gibbs is team president. So, it's inevitable that he's going to make mistakes because they deal *so much* in free agency. The number of mistakes are bound to be greater than most other teams. It's like flipping a coin; if I flip it 10 times, the chances of me getting at least 5 heads is 50 percent. But, if toss 100 coins, the chance that I get 5 heads is a lot greater. So, it is with the Redskins. Sure, there have been failures. But, there have been hits too. Where would the Redskins be without Santana Moss, Marcus Washington, Randy Thomas, Casey Rabach, Shawn Springs. Ironically, some might call those guys 'core' Redskins now. But, here's the thing. As good as those players are, playing a lot in free agency means ur going to miss a lot. Up here, it seems that misses are very expensive. Becuase, they cost draft cho!
ices. And lack of draft choices lead to lack of depth. And so, when a player like Shawn Springs goes down, the defense is in shambles.

3) Lack of a consistent, reliable quarterback. Brunell has been, at best, mediocre. He's had average numbers, but this is a great case where statistics lie. He's never had the ability to make plays in this 3 years here. In year 1, he and Gibbs' antiquated scheme directly cost us a playoff birth. In year 2, his health and ineffectiveness kept us from advancing further in the playoffs. And in year 3, when the defense broke down, Brunell could never make the plays. In a year where the defense couldn't bail him out, Brunell's weaknesses (despite his statistical bravado) were magnified. And in some part, because the offense couldn't sustain drives, the defense was worn out. (This is not to excuse the defense from the horrenous performance this year).

So, what's the outlook like? Forget a GM now; the Redskins have made their bed and they have to live with it. But, I still believe they can be a playoff team. They *seem* to have a player at QB. I say seems because these things take at least two full years to evaluate. But, from all indications, and for me non-football indicators
are more important(hard worker, modesty, determination to improve), Jason Campbell seems to have the goods. There isn't much the defense can do but add a couple of players. But, this is essentially the same defense from last year. So, a couple of players in important spots could be vital. A DL to rush the passer. A CB to complement Springs and Rogers and provide depth.
The return of Priloeau. Fox got valuable time playing back there and should provide quality depth. A backup linebacker and DL to provide depth. This defense can be pretty darn good again.

But, I think the single most important
reason to be optimistic is that Joe Gibbs football still works: you win by rushing the ball and stopping the run. If you look back at the past 10 super bowl winners, with the exception of the Rams, all of them could reliably gain short yardage and stop the opponent from doing so (here I include teams
that sometimes use short passes instead of runs like the Pats). 4 yards rushing, 5 yards rushing, a quick 5 yard hitch, 7 yard slant, 3 yards through the middle of the defense; that's ball control. That's imposing your will on your opponent and physically whipping them. That's maintaining long drives and keeping your defense off the field. That's preventing the opposing team from ever getting any reliable yardage on you. That's controlling the line of scrimmage. And that's Redskins football. You need a QB who can still make plays and make the defense suffer when they stack the line. A QB who can use the run to set up play action and fire the ball across the middle consistently. The Skins never had that under Gibbs II. They seem to now. It's a formula that's worked in the past and still works. Football is not really that complicated. Unfortunately, it's something the Redskins have been too willing to stray from. But, I think that stops next season. I think Washington is on it's!
way to great things and in Season 5 in Gibbs II, unlike this year, will be a real threat to win it all.

I definitely agree with most of this. A GM would be nice but it at this point it seems unlikely. All we can hope for is that they have learned their lesson from the past couple seasons and dive in to the offseason with a little less enthusiasm and get the most they can out of the draft. Hopefully Gibbs and the rest didn't watch the pres last night and decide they too need to send 20000 more troops to the battle.

Again, some interesting points, but a flawed thesis. Hindsight is 20/20, but the free agent issues, as this writer points out, are huge whether you hit or miss. Of course, missing from this analysis is how much more free agents ususally cost you. And, yes Danny let him shop for the groceries, but as I've said before, if you're looking to place blame, the original sin goes back to the guy that gave Gibbs that power.

Would Gibbs have come back with a GM in place? I think that's an open question. He's apparently comfortable sharing the personnel decisions with Vinny and his assistants; so why not a GM?

Gibbs did coach his way during the playoff season and it apparently was too much for him. He did wait too long to re-establish his philosophy and I'm not sure by the time he did it there was much of a point. So assuming he comes back with the reigns on Saunders and a healthy defense there may be some cause for hope.

But as far as adding depth is concerned, we're in a huge hole. We have, what, 3 draft picks this year? dcsween has suggested trading down for more, but then you possibly cost yourself the chance at quality, plus how many more could we reasonably expect to add? There are huge needs on D at almost every position.

Grilliams obviously overestimated his ability to mold personnel to his scheme, especially with Lemar Marshall. I won't pin Archuleta on him as a personnel decision but he definitely couldn't find a way to use him and put him stituations where he would be exposed.

Anyway, I'm rambling now and obviously get to "work" before everyone else so I'll give way.

Definitely a post written with burgundy and gold-colored glasses. Three seasons into his triumphant return, and we're still talking about returning to Joe Gibbs football????? Does Anwis know how silly that sounds? We have a 6-game run in the 2005 season to show for all that investment in coaches and personnel over three seasons, and the latest chapter includes a 5-11 record. If we're talking about returning to Joe Gibbs football after three seasons with Joe Gibbs as head coach and team president, maybe that's a hint that perhaps the coach is the problem. The defense has fallen off a cliff, and yet folks still cling to the hope that the Joe Gibbs of old will show up next season and make things right. Hello!!! Joe Gibbs is here now and is responsible for this debacle. What has Joe actually done, not said, that makes people believe that it will all turn around in 2007? Almost everything you read from NFL insiders is that the 'Skins are a laughingstock with no identity. Are they a running team, a passing team, a bruising defensive team, or what? Even they don't know. Of all the sins that have been committed over the past three years, the worst in my mind is the absolute lack of an identity. If you don't know who you are, you have no idea of what you want to or how you're going to do it.

*** Joe Gibbs football still works: you win by rushing the ball and stopping the run. ... 4 yards rushing, 5 yards rushing, a quick 5 yard hitch, 7 yard slant, 3 yards through the middle of the defense; that's ball control ***

Ball control, yes. Al Saunders' offense, no. The reason Gibbs' football works is, by running up the time of possession, you wear down the defense. Saunders' offense relies on running up the points first, before running up the time of possession clock.

With Gibbs' football -- control of the line (esp. moving that line 10 yards in three downs at time) -- the half-time adjustments can be tweaks to assure that 3rd down translates into 1st down. With the Saunders' offense, the plays are all pre-planned in a sequence (to read how defenses respond early, well before halftime b/c you already know what you're looking for ... the plays that don't produce yards are pre-designed to show you why they don't as they happen). The problem with that offense is that three and out is OK b/c yards (and time of possession) get traded for real-time adjustments ... and the D never gets gassed ... so the O-line does.

I'm pretty tired of reading guest Blogs. All guest blogs are comments that we usually post, except that they are those 8-10 paragrah comments with about 10 sentences in each paragraph. I skip those automatically because of my short attention span (adult add)........

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH JUST MORE WHINING FROM LOSER SKINI FANS. KEEP YOUR HOPES UP. MAYBE ONE DAY YOUR FRANCHISE WILL BE AS GOOD AS THE COWBOYS. NAH, NOT WITH DANNY-BOY AND OLD MAN GIBBY RUNNING THINGS. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAA

4th, if you need a new topic, we should return to a topic from previous thread about the underexplored possibilities of rock, paper, scissors (or in some households, scissors, scissors, scissors ... I love that). We should do a guts out blog on RPS.

it really is a joy to see other NFC east teams bickering amongst themselves. i heard the thing about the giants strength coach as well. and yesterday i think i recall hearing that shockey was talking to to members of the eagles team saying he'd love to play there...

Two more excellent Ravens articles today by WaPo beat writers Jason and Les. The difference in mentality to the Skins operation is startling ... and depressing ... and makes me envious. Les' article about the redo by the owner/Billick/Newsome is particularly good. My only hope is that Mr. $nyder and St. Joe still read the WaPo. Could you imagine an NFL where every team has parity, but not in their mediocrity, but instead excellence?

Howdy little buckaroo who ALWAYS TYPES IN CAPS like some braindead pultroon who thinks the Caps Lock key is what you press when you've got a sure bet on dc's hockey team---why don't you just snap that football right back here and we'll take this easy chip shot field goal and....oh!...oh my god!!!! pick it up!!! runnnnnnn!!!!!!!!

Thanks to the cowpukes for providing the best comedy of the season--the difference between the skins and them at the end was that poor tuna shnook actually thought he could coax his band of wasted goofs into the playoffs.

The guest blogs are fine--there's a lot of passion out here for the team...I'm a parent and I know that you can be disappointed by your kids sometimes, as much as you love them. But the key thing is, you never stop loving them. And yes, it can cost $150 to park them somewhere, so the analogy holds up.

And I like Anwis's coin-flip example, with one small addendum--no matter how many times you flip the coin, the chances of it landing heads is always 50-50.

I was listening to ESPN radio yesterday and for some unknown reason Monk was not one of the guys they thought deserved it. They were leaning toward guys like Tagliabue, derrick thomas, thurman thomas, and Russ Grimm. At least there's one redskins in there but i can not even begin to understand how Monk can be snubbed year after year. It's shameful that a guy can't just play the game of football with a workman like mentality and get the credit he deserves. The man was solid, consistent, and was getting 100 receptions before it was in style on a team that sported at least 2 other amazing receivers and pounded the ball more than anything else. a real crying shame man... and how many superbowls did thurman thomas have again?

I think assuming Prioleau is a possible fix at FS is a mistake. He was not and has not been a consistent starter in the past, and it takes a long time to come back from a knee injury -- physically you're not the same, and mentally it still crosses your mind. He can still contribute, I'm sure; and he might have his legs back under him during the season.

This is actually one of the reasons why I'm reasonably confident that Portis will be back and fully capable in the fall -- his legs are clear, and you can rehab and recover full motion on the hand a shoulder a lot faster than your legs. Add to that the pounding he didn't take while on IR...

I blogged my guts out yesterday and get rewarded with another guest blog posting. Sorry Anwis, nothing personal, but i didn't even read it, which BTW was by decision and not a lack of education (BOOFER) That's about all I got today, more jabs at our faithful village idiot.

Just downloaded the Fiesta bowl on my iPod... that was an amazing game. I also downloaded the O.K. Go music video with the treadmills, a keeper for sure. Um, I wore my brown shoes today instead of the typical black shoes... I matched my belt with my socks and look somewhat respectable. I haven't been trimming the beard lately and am really enjoying my grad classes so far. I am bored and have way too much job security. Help me.

Dorf, if you have job security, I'm positive that this blog can help correct that.

As for Fisher's column...here's what I don't get. Right now, "Mr." Snyder gets a cut out of everything at that stadium: parking, concessions, tickets, etc. Why would he move downtown and build a stadium where parking would no longer be necessary? Wouldn't that cut into a significant amount of his stadium revenue (revenue he probably doesn't have to share with the rest of the league)?

Then I thought about it: assume 30,000 cars at $20 each for 10 games a year and you arrive at $6M. That's half the price of an NFL strong safety! So in the end, "Mr." Snyder probably isn't making that much off the parking fees and by buiding his stadium downtown, presumably with a retractable roof, he could probably get his beloved DC Super Bowl.

I believe hes gauranteed "super bowls"??? That is a guess based upon rumor read in a conundrum of daily diatribes known as this blog. But, if true, the SB would be a cash cow that Gecko could not ignore.

Just caught up on last nights blogs - you kids HAVE TO TUNE IN ON Sunday. Gosh, I remember my first episode of 24 like it was last week. JB killed about 5 guys in 3 minutes, two with his bare hands.

I'd be peeing myself about 24, but I know it's going to be tough for them to be original this season. They've killed his wife, made his daughter a porn star, got him addicted to heroin, killed him, revived him, sent him into hiding...what else left???

I'm sure you folks covered this, but Brunnell's surgery? WTF!! I can understand a guy playing with pain, but are you telling me no one there had any idea? They just thought his dink and dunk style was cute? There's a difference between playing hurt and being injured and it sure sounds like he was the latter - hurting the team with his selfishness too.

Skinswest - It never caught on fire on the Blog. I brought this up yesterday. There is outrage, though.

Diddy - The Stadium would be at RFKn not downtown. He would Def get Many SBs. Also, he needs to out do Jerry Jones for largest stadium. Jerry's new stadium can hold up to 100K if you convert the end zone seats to standing room only......

PLEASE ART MONK WAS A JOKE. MICHAEL IRVIN WAS A WAY BETTER RECEIVER THAN OLD MAN MONK EVER WISHED HE COULD BE. IRVIN GETS IN BEFORE MONK!!!!!!!!!! YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A DALLAS COWBOY GETTING THE BETTER OF A SKINI. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

What's next for Jack Bauer? What could he possibly do next that hasn't been done yet? Easy.

He becomes a Redskins Insider and the world goes to sh*t as he devotes every waking moment to the blog. In the 23rd hour he miraculously posts his last comment and is finally able to pull himself away from his keyboard. His overly-calloused fingers reach for his weapon and, as usual, he makes everything right in the world.

honestly i think Gibbs is still a great motivator of men, he still regognizes talent, and can still manage the game.
the thing is, is that he has made a few mistakes with regards to listening to his OC and DC about player personell...(archuleta and Lloyd, Carter...
and just a few mistakes all happening at the same time, coupled with the loss of springs, prioleau, clark, pierce and smoot and harris and u have total defensive meltdown.
Cuz lets not forget, we had a no.3 and no.9 ranked Defense with a line of Daniels, Griffin, Salavae, and Lynn, so the D-line is not the major issue....
It just seems like the Redskins are consisently plauged with bad luck at the worst times
Oh..and ART MONK should be in the HALL...no question whatsoever

The skins took a left turn on a dirt road and got lost.Somehow,they found their way out of the wilderness and began to reconize where they were.They took that road and they are now safe at home.

When Gibbs had his team meeting and began to take over the team,the worm started to turn.It was too late and past decisions and miscalculations were far too great to overcome.But the blue print was finally laid out.Deep in his heart,he thought he was in position based on the playoff run.It didn't work out.Do you really think he is still lost on that dirt road?

We can chat all day about the mistakes and shortcommings,but If I were you.....I wouldn't bet against Gibbs.

Let's take the good and build this thing together.What did we learn? (1)We have a quaterback.We should be so excited just to see him grow.(2)We have an offence that is totally back next year (must sign dockery)Do you really believe that Gibbs and saunders can't figure this out.This offence WILL explode.(3) One of the best offensive lines in the game.(4)Top 5 special teams.From top to bottom,our special teams can stack up to any in the league.(need Hall back to 100%)Two of the 3 units will be top 5.That leaves the defence.All energy will be applied to this unit.(5) number 6 pick.(6)enough cap space to once again be a player.Total focus is on the defence and williams will fix it.even if we can climb to 10-15 rankings.It should be enough to get us 10-12 wins with the.....(7) last place schedule.We will be soooooo under the radar and picked last in our division.We want NO monday night games please.I just have this bad feeling that the league will serve us up for a Thanksgiving day with Dallas as a little joke.(8)The NFC is weak.Or atleast weak enough to go from worst to first.

One thing is for sure.danny and Joe will do whatever they need to do to give us a shot and that gives us hope.

fdrt131 Because I can not live without sex more that to me to do(make) I can not take it(him) on
hunting any more because it(he) small what to do(make)?
can not live without sex more that to me to do(make) I can not take it fsdf